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2018 Indycar Series
The 2018 IndyCar Series was the 23rd season of the Verizon Indycar Series and the 97th official championship. The season started on March 11, 2018 and ended on September 30, 2018. The season was particularly dominated by Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, Andretti Autosport, and Chip Ganassi Racing. The defending champion, Scott Dixon, finished third place. Marco Andretti finished in his best season ever, finishing in 2nd place. The winner of the championship was Alexander Rossi, who became the first Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports driver to ever win the championship. Teams and Drivers *® = Rookie *(W) = Former Champion Driver Changes *In July 2017, Hélio Castroneves announced that Roger Penske had signed him over to Sports Car Racing, and would retire from IndyCar full-time. *On January 4, 2018, Andretti Autosport announced that both Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato would leave the team. Both left due to Andretti switching to a Chevrolet engine, and both Rossi and Sato are sponsored by Honda. This caused conflict so they left to Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing, respectively. *In January of 2018, Tony Kanaan signed a deal with Roger Penske to drive the No. 3 car for the retiring Hélio Castroneves. *To fill in for Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi, two Indy Lights drivers were hired. Matheus Leist replaced Takuma Sato in the No. 26 car. Colton Herta replaced Alexander Rossi in the No. 98 car. *Fernando Alonso announced that he would not race in the 2018 Indianapolis 500, wanting to race the Monaco Grand Prix. Kyle Kaiser used his No. 29 car when he was hired by Andretti to run the season full-time. *After the 2017 season, Mikhail Aleshin was fired by Schmidt-Peterson Motorsport and was not able to come back to IndyCar. *Sebastián Saavedra joined Rahal Letterman Racing for the 2018 season. The team Saavedra was racing for folded during the off-season. *Jack Harvey switched from Andretti to A.J. Foyt Enterprises. *Zach Veach switched to Ed Carpenter Racing full-time. Schedule Race summaries Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg This was the first race to use the 2018 aero kits. In practice, the new IndyCar had set an average speed of 155.363 mph in the first practice. During the practice, only two incidents occurred. Graham Rahal was on cold tires and spun into the tire barrier, causing minor to moderate damage. The second incident involved Esteban Gutiérrez in a similar situation. During qualifying, James Hinchcliffe started on pole position. Hinchcliffe led the race for about 25 laps before Scott Dixon pulled a pass on the frontstraight. The only yellow of the race came out when Spencer Pigot crashed hard into the tire barrier and broke his right wrist. During the last few laps, Dixon had a good restart, and won the race. The podium finishers were Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, and Simon Pagenaud. Driver standings #Scott Dixon - 53 pts. #James Hinchcliffe - 41 pts. #Simon Pagenaud - 35 pts. #Tony Kanaan - 32 pts. #Takuma Sato - 30 pts. #Alexander Rossi - 28 pts. #Marco Andretti - 26 pts. #Ed Jones - 24 pts. #Will Power - 22 pts. #Matheus Leist - 20 pts. #Josef Newgarden - 19 pts. #Ed Jones - 18 pts. #JR Hildebrand - 17 pts. #Sébastien Bourdais - 16 pts. #Kyle Kaiser - 15 pts. #Max Chilton - 14 pts. #Zach Veach - 13 pts. #Charlie Kimball - 12 pts. #Ryan Hunter-Reay - 11 pts. #Conor Daly - 10 pts. #Colton Herta - 9 pts. #Graham Rahal - 8 pts. #Carlos Muñoz - 7 pts. #Spencer Pigot - 6 pts. #Esteban Gutiérrez - 5 pts. Category:Hypothetical Events